[Apologies for the delay - it's been longer than I thought, mainly
because of trying to find a time to watch it with my son, added to which
the fact that the official recon combines the first two episodes meant
some untangling was required. Also, life.]
Back to television at last - albeit with the first ever non-historical episode to be missing from the archives. It's not quite missing, of course, as there's a six-minute stretch of actual footage. This exists thanks to its being requisitioned for Whose Doctor Who, a 1977 instalment of the documentary series Lively Arts
(which ended up using about half a minute) and then being rescued by
Jan Vincent-Rudzki, president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society,
who was acting as an advisor to the show. I'd still call this a "missing
episode", though; but I'll postpone saying more about that until next
time, as I've a lot of other topics to cover here.
Starting with the episode's status as the beginning of a new season. Last time - with Planet of Giants
- the story carried on pretty much directly from the end of season one,
making me wince slightly for all those stories shoehorned in between.
This time it seems pretty obvious that there is a gap. Steven appears
more settled, and the tense mood of the travellers doesn't quite match
with the end of The Time Meddler; in addition, the Doctor's
comment about 'past experience' adds to the sense that this team has
been together for a while. As a polymedial (multimedial?) fan, I give
this a thumb's up.
This is pure chance, really. When the script for Galaxy 4 was
first written Iananbarbara were still on the team, and mostly for
reasons of time (exacerbated by the ongoing change of production
personnel) the rewrites made to accommodate Steven's presence were
minimal. Of course it's written as if this team has been together
for a long time! (Other aspects of this weren't so serendipitous, but
we'll get to them later.)
There are a number of continuity references which seem to be included
largely to remind viewers of the previous season: in particular, Vicki
comparing this planet to Xeros (the setting for The Space Museum),
and the return of the astral map. We also have the next instance of
Vicki picking a cute name - the Chumblies, this time. (I think this is
also the last occasion on TV, though I've only heard The Myth Makers
once.) The Doctor also has a signature character moment when he is
talking about the impenetrability of "his force barrier", in a lovely,
low-key humourous exchange between him and Steven.
When we concentrate on William Hartnell's performance here, it is hard
to remember that this is still part of the second production block and
being recorded a week after Checkmate. He comes across as
particularly prickly, and is getting far more lines wrong than he did
last episode - the classic being their "long-deserved, undeserved"
break. This has more than a little to do with the troubled recording
history of this serial - which I'm also going to leave until next time,
since I want to save a modicum of space to talk about the actual content
of the episode.
Steven is pretty darn sexist here, referring to the Drahvins as a
delightful surprise and commenting that their spaceship has "a few good
features" - with the double meaning obviously intentional. As well as
explaining what Jacqueline Rayner was drawing on for his
characterisation in The Suffering, this is actually really
appropriate because of his backstory as a space pilot. In the 1960s, US
astronauts were drawn from the high flyers of the USAF, and came from an
intensely macho culture. Many (though by no means all) bought into that
culture wholeheartedly; and this is the real-life background to
contemporary images of "space pilots", while Dan Dare's attitude to
Peabody provides an example from popular fiction that is no better.
So, the characterisation is fine, which is actually a pleasant surprise.
Less well handled is the central issue of the villains' identity. The
TARDIS team are instantly suspicious of the Drahvins for no good reason
that I can see (or rather hear), with Steven apparently the only one
who is even prepared to consider that they might be telling the truth
(Vicki's body language in the main clip is telling, here). Maaga is also
presented as almost entirely unsympathetic, so where is the mystery?
On the plus side, there is a pleasing symmetry to the two sides in the
conflict. Maaga's Drahvin soldiers being vat-grown and lacking
initiative - "not what you would call human" - makes them excellent
mirrors of the Rill-controlled Chumblies. And the cliffhanger is both
effective and of a style I don't remember seeing so far in this
marathon.
I've rattled on for a while. Hopefully the next review will be up in not
four hundred dawns, not even fourteen dawns - but four dawns.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 11th September 1965
Viewers: 9.0 million
Chart Position: 23
Appreciation Index: 56
Rating:
4/10.
Next Time:
Trap of Steel.
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